Marksmen compete at the national level

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Emmanuel Santiago
  • 103rd Airlift Wing, Public Affairs
The 43rd Winston P. Wilson Championship, an annual championship for best marksman in the National Guard, took place this past May at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, North Little Rock, Ark.

This year's competition was the first year members of the 103rd Security Forces Squadron formed a team to represent the Connecticut National Guard, competing with 86 other teams with a total of 364 competitors.

The 103rd Security Forces Squadron's team was comprised of four competitors: Staff Sgt. Brian Davies, Master Sgt. James Reynolds, Master Sgt. Marc Cioto, and Staff Sgt. Brian Sixt, all Airmen assigned to the 103rd Security Forces Squadron.

In order to compete in the national competition, the team had to place first overall out of 11 teams during the 2013 Connecticut State "TAG" Match. They then went on to compete in the Military Advisory Council Region 1 competition, then onward to the Winston P. Wilson national championship where they finished in the top half of the competition.

The national championship lasted five days and introduced a variety of challenges that utilized standard issue rifles and handguns. Those challenges included shooting in team and individual matches while using various shooting positions and focusing on combat-style shooting.

"The competition helps foster good marksmanship," said Sixt.

According to Sixt, competing on the national level gave the Airmen an opportunity to sharpen their fundamentals of marksmanship; it also gave them the opportunity to network with and learn techniques from other marksmen.

"It's a good way to talk to other shooters," said Sixt, "it's a shooter's community."